Dry Documentation vs Manual Documentation
Developers should adopt Dry Documentation when working on large or rapidly evolving projects where manual documentation updates are prone to errors and become time-consuming meets developers should learn manual documentation to improve communication, facilitate onboarding, and maintain project knowledge, especially in complex or legacy systems where automated tools may not capture nuanced details. Here's our take.
Dry Documentation
Developers should adopt Dry Documentation when working on large or rapidly evolving projects where manual documentation updates are prone to errors and become time-consuming
Dry Documentation
Nice PickDevelopers should adopt Dry Documentation when working on large or rapidly evolving projects where manual documentation updates are prone to errors and become time-consuming
Pros
- +It is particularly useful in agile environments, open-source projects, or teams using continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, as it ensures documentation stays synchronized with code changes
- +Related to: documentation-as-code, api-documentation
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
Manual Documentation
Developers should learn manual documentation to improve communication, facilitate onboarding, and maintain project knowledge, especially in complex or legacy systems where automated tools may not capture nuanced details
Pros
- +It is crucial for creating user-facing documentation, API references, and design documents that require human interpretation and storytelling, such as in open-source projects or enterprise software with diverse stakeholders
- +Related to: technical-writing, markdown
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
The Verdict
Use Dry Documentation if: You want it is particularly useful in agile environments, open-source projects, or teams using continuous integration/continuous deployment (ci/cd) pipelines, as it ensures documentation stays synchronized with code changes and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.
Use Manual Documentation if: You prioritize it is crucial for creating user-facing documentation, api references, and design documents that require human interpretation and storytelling, such as in open-source projects or enterprise software with diverse stakeholders over what Dry Documentation offers.
Developers should adopt Dry Documentation when working on large or rapidly evolving projects where manual documentation updates are prone to errors and become time-consuming
Disagree with our pick? nice@nicepick.dev